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Awesome Radical Retrospective: Arkanoid

Arkanoid was originally an arcade game developed by Taito in 1986 and later ported over to the NES. You control the “Vaus”, a space ship that basically acts as a paddle to bounce a ball against multicolor bricks. Some bricks take more than one hit to destroy and the player can grab upgrades along the way (expand the Vaus, multiple balls, or lasers). Once all the bricks are cleared on the stage, you advance to the next stage. However, if you miss the ball and it goes behind you, you lose a life.

I think I like Arkanoid so much because the arcade game was in our local Pizza Hut. Pizza and video games…how can you beat that? The storyline was pretty awesome, too. At the beginning of the game you see this:

THE ERA AND TIME OF THIS
STORY IS UNKNOWN.

AFTER THE MOTHERSHIP
“ARKANOID” WAS DESTROYED,
A SPACECRAFT “VAUS”
SCRAMBLED AWAY FROM IT.

BUT ONLY TO BE TRAPPED IN
SPACE WARPED BY SOMEONE.

Space warped by someone…what does it all mean? Well, once you defeat the final boss, named “Doh” for no apparent reason, all your questions are answered:

DIMENSION-CONTROLLING FORT
“DOH” HAS NOW BEEN
DEMOLISHED, AND TIME
STARTED FLOWING REVERSLY.

“VAUS” MANAGED TO ESCAPE
FROM THE DISTORTED SPACE.

BUT THE REAL VOYAGE OF
“ARKANOID” IN THE GALAXY
HAS ONLY STARTED……

The game is pretty addicting, it’s so simple but so fun. Be sure to have pizza on hand to enhance the game play experience.

Note: The guy is cheating in the video, but it was the best one I could find.

I don’t know if there was a paddle controller for the NES or not. I know there was a big joystick controller…but I don’t ever remember a paddle controller. I played it at home without the paddle and it’s still fun. It’s a simple game, but there is something about it that’s very addictive.